BACKGROUND: We investigated the effects of the use of vitamin E-coated membrane (VEM) dialyzer in comparison to simvastatin on markers of chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and endothelial cell apoptosis in ten patients on chronic hemodialysis (HD), aiming at distinguishing the different treatment effects and their time sequence on these pathogenetic routes.METHODS: Ten HD patients were sequentially submitted to a 6-month treatment with the use of VEM and 10 mg of simvastatin daily, interrupted by a 3-month washout period. At baseline, at 3, and 6 months of each trial, serum C-reactive protein (CRP), apolipoprotein (Apo) A1 and B, lipoprotein-a [Lp(a)], high-sensitivity interleukin-6 (hsIL-6), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), soluble E-selectin (sE-selectin), soluble Fas (sFas), soluble Fas ligand (sFasL), and plasma oxidized low-density lipoproteins (oxLDL) levels were determined.RESULTS: VEM treatment resulted in a significant decrease in CRP, IL-6, sICAM-1 at 3 months, and oxLDL at 6 months, compared to baseline. Simvastatin resulted in a significant decrease in CRP, which correlated with decreases in both total (r = 0.87, p < 0.05) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, IL-6, sICAM-1, sVCAM-1, oxLDL, and sFas at 6 months, compared to baseline. Simvastatin effects on sVCAM-1 (mean difference = 652 ng/mL; 95% CI = 294 to 2686; p < 0.05) and sFas (mean difference = 1284 pg/mL; 95% CI = 510 to 1910; p < 0.05) differed significantly from the corresponding VEM effects.CONCLUSIONS: The 6-month use of VEM resulted in more direct and immediate anti-inflammatory effects compared with those caused by the 6-month treatment with simvastatin. Simvastatin caused a more intense decrease in the markers of inflammation, which was in part correlated with its lipid-lowering effects.